Insolvency

Company directors are having a hard time of it recently, in terms of ones who commit wrongful or unlawful trading and become disqualified as a result. Director disqualification In the first quarter of 2016, the highest numbers of directors were disqualified than at any other time in the past 6 years. A total of 390 director disqualifications were obtained by… Read more →

If Insolvency Practitioners are looking to enter into Conditional Fee Agreements and/or take out ATE Insurance they may need to get their skates on. Speaking at the recent 2015 Mustill Lecture in Leeds, Lord Justice Jackson has urged the government to ditch one of the final exemptions to his civil justice reforms. He has said that the exemption for insolvency… Read more →

This is the second part of my commentary on the changes brought into force on 1 October 2015. For the first time administrators are now able to bring claims for fraudulent or wrongful trading and liquidators and administrators now have the power to assign causes of action relating to preferences, transactions at an undervalue, wrongful and fraudulent trading (although there… Read more →

Like me, you must be wondering why the government has decided to introduce so many changes in the insolvency world all at the same time. In order to try and make sense of things, this is the first of a series of articles on the changes which have come into effect from 1 October 2015. 1. The bankruptcy level has… Read more →

In the recent case of Rowbury –v- Official Receiver (2015) the High Court revoked an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) because at the creditors meeting called to consider the IVA proposal, there were material irregularities relating to the admittance of creditor proofs of debt and the chairman’s failure to order a suspension of the meeting. The case concerned an IVA proposal… Read more →

Insolvency practitioners will welcome the recent decision of the Supreme Court in BPE Solicitors & another –v- Gabriel [2015] in which the Court held that if a Trustee in Bankruptcy proceeded with an appeal it would not be justifiable for the Trustee to be liable to pay any previous costs orders made against the Bankrupt. The general position in respect… Read more →

Normally it is the Companies Court which deals with administration related applications.However in X-Fab Semiconductor Foundries AG v Plessey Semiconductors Limited [2014] EWHC 3190 (QB) (17 July 2014), the High Court has held that, in exceptional circumstances, the Queen’s Bench division can hear an application to permit creditor action against the assets of a company that was the subject of… Read more →

News On 22 April 2014, court fees payable in the High Court and County Court for insolvency relating applications and filings increased, sometimes substantially. For example, the petition fee for an administration order has increased to £280 and the court fee for an application within existing insolvency proceedings has increased to £155. On 6 April 2014, HMRC announced that it… Read more →

Welcome to this month’s insolvency update. I have set out below some recent cases and changes to the legislation which may be of interest relating to both corporate and personal insolvency. We would also like to invite you to our new series of Insolvency updates, the first one taking place on 12th March 2014, book here to confirm your place. Revised… Read more →